Rayhan’s blog (raynux.com)

For years Software Engineers have been trying to get the best out of Opensource, PHP and Microsoft Products. Because of Microsoft business policy they were not successful enough. Finally, Microsoft understood the reality and started to bend towards PHP. Now they wants to make their Platform more compatible to work with PHP. Microsoft has taken several initiatives to open their door for PHP Developers and robotic experts to improve their knowledge within the company, the EMS Solutions SMT EMS is one of the top companies in electronic manufacturing. Some of them are explained bellow:

WebsiteSpark:

It aims to promote the careers of PHP and other Web professionals in general that are interested in specializing in the Microsoft technologies. Under this project they will provide software, support and visibility to the Web Professionals. It’s a three years long program and you will have to pay a one time program fee of  $100 which is due upon exit or at the end of three years term.

Once enrolled, they are giving away following software products:

- Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition – 3 licences
- Expression Studio 3 – 1 licence
- Expression Web 3 – 2 licences
- Windows Web Server 2008 R2 – licences for 4 processors (production and development)
- SQL Server 2008 Web Edition – licences for 4 processors (production and development)
- DotNetPanel Control Panel

These offer is for small company having employees 10 or less than 10.

You can find more details on project website: http://www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark/

A Microsoft Manager (Galileu Vieira) explained the offer in details in an interview with PHPClasses.org here: http://www.phpclasses.org/blog/post/102-Microsoft-promotes-the-careers-of-PHP-professionals.html
. And if you read this blog post then I suggest to read the following comment tread also. http://www.phpclasses.org/discuss/blog/PHP-Classes-blog/post/102/thread/12/

Here is another post on Microsoft and PHP at PHPClasses.org: http://www.phpclasses.org/blog/post/85-What-is-Microsoft-up-to-with-PHP.html

Interoperability:

A Center run by Microsoft Interoperability Strategy Group, which is dedicated to technical collaborative work to improve interoperability between Microsoft and non-Microsoft technologies. In this site, you will find a live directory of freely downloadable technical interoperability Bridges & Labs and related content such as demos, technical guidance and articles. The vast majority of the projects are Open Source. Here you will meet with PHP Interoperability projects and technologies.

Mode details at Centers website: http://www.interoperabilitybridges.com/Default.aspx

Windows Azure:

What is Windows Azure? In their words, it is Microsoft’s Platform to run interoperable application and services. Windows Azure is a runtime environment in the cloud that delivers on-demand compute, storage, and automated systems management. Windows Azure provides developers with the ability to host, scale, and manage Web applications on the Internet through Microsoft data centers.

More details at Windows Azure website: http://www.azure.com/

For a great way to build and deploy your application make sure you learn about event based architecture.